Just Stop Oil climate activists have clashed with a motorist who said he was trying to take his partner to hospital as they blocked a road in London.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were on the scene quickly and 26 arrests were made for wilful obstruction of the highway.
Around 30 protesters gathered on Shoreditch High Street at the junction of Great Eastern Street at around 12.15pm on Saturday where they set up a road block to disrupt traffic.
Several individuals “locked on” and glued themselves onto the road surface, adding that specialist officers were required to attend to carry out de-bonding, police said.
Footage posted on its official Twitter account showed pedestrians and drivers growing angry at the demonstrators as they urged them to move.
In a clip, a driver tells the group sitting on the road to “move out the way” as another man appears and drags one of the protesters to the pavement.
After stopping his vehicle, the driver was heard telling the protesters: “My missus is not well, mate. She needs to get to the hospital. Get out of the f******* way, mate.
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He added: “Have some respect for other people, not just yourselves, yeah. There’s other people that need to get places.”
Saturday marks the 15th day of demonstrations linked to the group – which wants the government to stop issuing all new oil and gas licences.
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Elsewhere in the city, Animal Rebellion supporters poured milk over the floors and over other dairy products at luxury store Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly.
A clip posted to the group’s social media showed activists emptying milk bottles as shoppers and staff quietly looked on, as the group calls on the government to support farmers in a transition to a plant-based food system.
The women walked into the gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square and threw the contents of two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the famous 1888 painting, which has an estimated value of £72.5m.
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Soup thrown over Van Gogh painting
Anna Holland, of Westgate Road in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Phoebe Plummer, 21, of Elms Road in Clapham, south London, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with criminal damage to the frame of the painting.
The force added that 28 arrests were made in total in relation to protests in central London on Friday.
Lora Johnson, 38, of Keens Lane, Reydon, Southwold in Suffolk, are also due to appear in the same court.
Johnson is charged with criminal damage after the main sign outside New Scotland Yard was covered with yellow paint on Friday.
Demonstrators also blocked the road in front of the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters during Just Stop Oil’s action.
Police said 25 other people have been bailed pending further inquiries.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Saturday unveiled plans for a major crackdown on the kinds of protests typically undertaken by climate activists – as she pledged to stop demonstrators holding the public “to ransom”.
She said she will give the police new powers to take a more “proactive” approach to some protests, with some of the measures specifically targeted at the tactics used by some environmental groups.
“Immediate action” is being taken after blueprints of jail layouts were shared online.
The maps detailing the layouts of prisons in England and Wales were leaked on the dark web over the past fortnight, according to The Times.
The detailed information is said to include the locations of cameras and sensors, prompting fears they could be used to smuggle drugs or weapons into prisons or help inmates plan escapes.
Security officials are now working to identify the source of the leak and who might benefit from the details.
The Ministry of Justice did not disclose which prisons were involved in the breach.
A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are not going to comment on the specific detail of security matters of this kind, but we are aware of a breach of data to the prison estate and, like with all potential breaches, have taken immediate action to ensure prisons remain secure.”
The leak comes amid a chronic prison overcrowding crisis, which has led to early release schemes and the re-categorising of the security risks of some offenders to ease capacity pressures.
The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.
Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.
There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.
A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.
They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.
“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.
“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”
The defence review will also be published in the spring.
While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.
They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after one man died and another was critically injured in a shooting in Birmingham.
Police were called to Rotton Park Road in Edgbaston, just before 11pm on Friday, to reports that two people had been shot.
One man, in his 20s, was found in a car but was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another man, in his 30s, was found injured at a bus stop, and was taken to hospital where he remains in a critical condition, West Midlands Police added.
Firearms officers arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of murder just before 12.30am. He remains in custody.
Officers remain on the scene, with road closures in place. The force said reassurance patrols will also be taking place.
Detective Inspector Nick Barnes said: “This is a tragic incident, and we have worked through the night to understand exactly what happened.
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“We’ve already made good progress and arrested a suspect, but I still need to hear from anyone who was in the area that we’ve not already spoken to.
“This happened near the busy junction with City Road and it may be that you’ve got dashcam footage or mobile phone footage from the area just before 11pm.
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“We really need to hear from you so that we can build as clear a picture as possible of what happened.”
Officers are urging anyone with information to get in contact, with anonymous tips also taken via Crimestoppers.